Most prior art packaging systems involve complex machinery such as Hopkins U.S. Pat. No. 1,659,143 issued Feb. 14, 1928 and Stroop U.S. Pat. No. 3,054,236 issued Sept. 18, 1962. Some have very complex web roller and feeding mechanisms as shown in Kato U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,596 issued Nov. 20, 1973. Most drive systems depend upon pull roller drives, which causes complex web paths and make the changing of web rolls and the feeding of a new web end through the processing path difficult. Presently marketed packaging systems of the aforementioned types include form-fill-seal packaging systems manufactured and sold by Sigma Systems, Inc. in Capitol Heights, Maryland and by Package Machinery Company, East Longmeadow, Maine. All of these are packaged so that it is very complex to locate web paths and require when changing of web rolls the feeding of the web through complicated machinery paths inside cabinets and through power operated feed rollers that need be mechanized to feed the web thereby introducing danger of injury to an operator. Also control circuits, sequencing and timing operations require complex mechanisms and electric control devices.
It is therefore an object of this invention to correct the foregoing deficiencies of the prior art by simplifying the web feed paths, the mechanisms and the control system.
It is also a problem with complex prior art mechanisms and web feed paths to achieve high operational speeds since the necessary sub-operations are numerous and time consuming. This limits the speed of output production. Thus, another object of the invention is to provide a reliable packaging system capable of high speed operation.
While some prior art systems such as Hanson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,988,970 issued Nov. 2, 1976, have produced simple systems for making bags, with accessible cantilevered web rolls so that the web feed paths might be observed and changed more readily, no known complete packaging system for packaging products with a continuous web has heretofore provided a structure with the versatility of efficient changeover of web rolls, feeding of the web end and changeover of package and web size all simultaneously in a complete packaging system.
It is our objective to achieve that as well.
Other features, advantages and objects of the invention will be set forth throughout the following specification, drawing and claims which include for example such features as doubling the package output speed without a corresponding increase of mechanisms or controls, producing very simple controls to thereby reduce the time and equipment required for completion of a packaged product, providing an entire packaging system with all web processing devices cantilevered on one side of a panel, and feeding the web out package by package, asynchronously if required, in response to a reciprocating web advance mechanism.